Secrets of Skin and Stone

by Wendy Laine

  Swack!

  I pulled back, looking around.

  “What was that?” she asked.

  “Stay here.” I scrambled to my feet and ran to the open barn door. Peering out, I listened as I scanned the area. I didn’t see anything, but if it was a gunshot, they didn’t necessarily have to be that close. “I don’t see anybody out there, but I don’t know for sure what that was. Maybe a bullet.” Sheepishly, I backed into the barn. If they’d been trying to kill me, I’d been standing there as a perfect target.

  “Aren’t gunshots louder?” Piper asked.

  “Probably.” Also, I just couldn’t imagine somebody firing at us. “Let’s go into that corner—out of sight.” That way, I could listen to see if there really was anyone else out there. I was imagining things. It had to be a bird, or somebody throwing rocks.

  Grabbing her hand, I pulled Piper over to the pile of hay in the corner. We sat down, side-by-side. I pulled our joined hands onto my lap, and my fingers traced the skin on her inner arm. I could feel the scratches on her arms from the fiends in the gym. Another place I had to check out. Hidden Creek was going to kill me from exhaustion.

  “We should be able to figure out who is doing this or at least eliminate more suspects,” I said. “I have experience dealing with the dark arts and you know this town better than anyone else.”

  “Not better than anyone else.”

  “You’re always watching people. I bet you know more stories about this bedeviled town than anybody realizes.”

  “Does that bother you?”

  “People being bedeviled?”

  “No. Me watching people. Me watching you. Does that bother you?”

  “Hell no. Stare your fill.”

  She actually laughed. “Don’t profane.”

  Danny hadn’t been entirely wrong about her staring, though, especially when you were keeping something from her—she stared through you. She had a real sense for when someone was lying. I couldn’t figure out what it was. I brought her hand to my mouth and kissed her knuckles. I had to keep Piper safe. If it killed me, I’d keep her safe.

  “Tell me about the car on the creek bed.”

  And she killed the mood.

  I flopped down on the hay. “What’s there to tell?”

  “Obviously, it was them.”

  “I think they’ll be comparing dental records, but I imagine it was.”

  She was staring at me. Specifically, she was staring at my forehead for some reason.

  “What else did you see?” she asked—like she knew. The government could use Piper to get confessions.

  “Nothing. Corpses. Rotting corpses.” It was a bit mean, especially in light of the suppressed gag and the sharp shudder that worked its way down her body.

  “You saw something else.” Piper was still eyeing my forehead.

  Oh hell, I couldn’t really be that obvious, could I? “I don’t see a fresh bullet hole.” I gestured at the wall of the barn, attempting to distract her. “But it looks like this barn doubled as a shooting range at one point. It’s more of a needle in a haystack than an actual needle in a haystack.”

  Piper went still and then shifted in the hay, looking down at it as if it was all needles and no hay. I hadn’t even been trying that time. She wriggled closer to me as if she wanted to crawl on top of me just to escape the bale of needle-ridden hay. I smothered my smile just as she glanced up.

  “Boys are so stupid.”

  “Girls are funny.”

  “So, tell me about the creek.”

  “It was nothing.”

  She sighed in exasperation and went back to staring at my forehead.

  “I don’t have a tell!” I said, sitting up.

  “A what?”

  “A tell. Something I do when I’m fibbing. I don’t have a tell.”

  “Everybody does.”

  “What’s yours, then?” I asked her. That would be good to know.

  “Maybe I never lie.” She even self-righteously lifted her chin to complete the picture.

  “My mom used to say ‘my cow died last night, so I don’t need your bull.’ Seems appropriate right now.”

  “I don’t lie, Gris. It’s not fair, and it’s not polite. I don’t lie.” She was cute, even when she was lying about lying.

  “You told me your name was Laura when we first met.”

  She grimaced.

  “Whether it’s because they’re trying to hold back unpleasantness or they’re out and out fibbing, everybody lies. Sometimes the lie is kinder.” I leaned back in the hay.

  “If I show you my tell, will you talk to me about Hidden Creek?”

  For an hour, couldn’t we be a normal couple? A normal couple—hiding out in a barn, hoping they hadn’t been shot at? A normal couple—where one of us was a gargoyle? Hell, we were doomed. “I’d rather not. It was ugly.”

  “We’re not keeping secrets from each other, and this’ll make it even.” Even. Piper used the word “even” where most other girls would use the word “perfect.”

  “Fine then. Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine.”

  She blushed again at the innuendo. My mom would love her. Her voice was prim as she said, “When I’m nervous, I have a tic.”

  “A what? Like a bug? You have a bug?” I teased her.

  She shivered and looked down at the hay like it was hiding critters.

  I was terrible. I didn’t deserve to spend time with a girl like Piper.

  “No, not a tick. A tic. T-I-C. You know, a motion you do so often it’s like a habit.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

  I moved my arms behind my head and relaxed. So far, this was the best part of today. “What is this tic?”

  She pinched my side for being annoying. “It’s with my hand. I…” She waved around.

  “You what?”

  “Oh, good grief, I tap my fingers together. That’s all.”

  “I’ll have to watch for that.” I’d seen it. I didn’t want to make her self-conscious, but I’d seen it. I grabbed her hand and kissed her fingers.

  “We‘re even now. Well, after you tell me about the creek.”

  She was like a pit bull with a chew toy, and she was staring at my forehead again. “This is not even,” she said when I didn’t respond.

  I groaned. “What do you want me to say, Piper? I went down into the water and found a car with bodies in it. It ranked low on the things I like about Hidden Creek.”

  I rolled onto my side and inched closer to her. She put a finger against my lips right as I leaned forward. “They’ve been there all this time?”

  I pulled her close enough to kiss her neck. “Mmm.” Piper smelled good. So much better than anything else I’d been around today. Her skin was soft as satin, too. I kissed up her neck and along her jaw.

  “Was it disgusting?”

  “Hmm.” How she could still be talking about this when I was running my mouth across the skin just below her ear, I didn’t know. “Piper,” I breathed her name. I wouldn’t be ready to give her up anytime soon. I bit the skin right below her ear, making Piper jump. “You wanna know what ranks high on the things I like about Hidden Creek?”

  “Mmm, yeah,” she whispered on a breathy exhale.

  “You. This barn with you in it. Piper Specials. Your mom’s cooking.” I paused and glanced toward her house. How long had it been anyway?

  “She’ll whistle when they’re out.”

  Oh. Good. It definitely hadn’t been a gunshot. I couldn’t hear anything, and it wouldn’t make sense for somebody to take one weak shot and then run off.

  “Do you think it was an accident? The car, I mean?” Piper was chewing on her lower lip.

  “I think they’ll be doing autopsies.” I smoothed my forehead out.

  “Gris!”

  “Laura!” Then, I shrugged. She wanted to hear it all? Fine, I’d tell her. “They had big holes in their chests.”

  “What?”

  “Somebody had carved out their hearts.
The water was cold enough that deep it sorta preserved them.”

  “That’s disgusting.” She gagged slightly. “Real disgusting.”

  I gestured between us. “Well, I’m sharing. I was gonna keep that to myself, but you like this sharing thing.”

  She was silent for a bit before turning onto her side and tracing my sleeve, above where the mark was. “What is this mark on your arm?”

  “Each generation in our family, a Watcher is born. A mark appears on the arm of the chosen Watcher for that generation around the time they lose their first tooth. Shortly after that, the darkness seeps into our body at night and things happen.”

  “What things?”

  “One night, you sprout wings in the middle of a nightmare, and it damn near scares you to death.”

  “Don‘t pro…”

  “Profane. I apologize. You’re a funny one for rules and being polite, Piper.”

  “I am not.” She punched me in the arm. “Why were you surprised you were the one to become a Watcher? Isn’t your daddy one? Aren’t you an only child?”

  “Yes. It comes through my granddaddy’s line. His brother, Critch, was the Watcher for that generation. But, the birthright could have jumped to one of my cousins instead of going to me.”

  “So, it’ll go to your kids?” she asked in a whisper.

  “It’ll likely go to one of my cousins’ kids and then move out of our line since I’m an only child.”

  “Why wouldn’t it go to one of your kids?”

  “Well, I’m not exactly normal, and I’m not sure I’m fully human. Gargoyles were modeled after us.”

  “So?”

  “I don’t think many girls are dying to spend their lives with a gargoyle. It’s hard to believe my mom accepted it. I might not have any kids for it to go to.”

  She flicked me in the head. “You’re not a gargoyle, idiot. You’re you. You’re Gris.”

  “I’m a freak inside.”

  “We‘re all a little freaky inside. You just happen to be able to fly.”

  I kissed her. I had to kiss her. Except kissing her, with her warmth pressed against me in the dark, made my body want to shift. My wings itched behing my shoulder blades. I pulled back abruptly. “Piper, I can’t…” Hell, that’d been close. I sucked in a deep breath. And another.

  “I’m sorry.” She was breathing fast, too.

  “It’s harder to stop the change when it’s dark.”

  “What?”

  I dropped back into the hay with a sigh. “You almost wound up kissing a gargoyle.”

  “I wouldn’t have minded.”

  Screw it. Groaning, I grabbed her, folding her into my arms, and I kissed her again—clear up until two loud whistles came from the direction of her house.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Piper

  That night, Gris stopped by my room and knocked softly on the window. Rather than come in, he said, “I should probably stay out here.”

  I leaned out my window. Our front porchlight illuminated him, making his outline glow. Normally, I didn’t much care for darkness, but he made it as warm as a fire-lit room. He was there without a shirt on again, and no shoes. It’d only been a day since I’d seen him changed, but it felt like a dream. It seemed impossible already.

  “How did you get here?” I asked.

  “Pardon?”

  “Did you walk or ride your bike?”

  I saw the quick flash of a smile. “I flew.”

  “I wanna see.” I couldn’t imagine such a thing.

  His denial came so swift and firm that it startled me. “No.”

  I waited for him to explain. He didn’t. The silence stretched out and filled with all the words we didn’t say. Maybe he didn’t figure I deserved an explanation. Maybe I didn’t. I mean, who was I to him? A short pit stop in the grand tour of Gris Caso. I had to prevent my heart from investing in him. Once we solved Hidden Creek’s fiend problem, he’d bolt out of here, anxious to see this town in his rearview mirror.

  “Oh,” I said finally—when somebody had to say something. I leaned back and put my hands up to the window to close it. “Good night then.” Mama had drilled into us to be polite, and I was gonna kill Gris with politeness and then cry after I’d shut the window. It would be good practice—this shutting him out of my life. I was likely only a week from building my wall between my heart and Gris Caso.

  “Wait. Just wait,” he said, stopping my hands. I could see a war of emotions on his face in the dim light. “You don’t make it easy to keep secrets.”

  “I didn’t realize we still were.” My tone was as prim as Mama’s on Sundays. “But I don’t know why I’m expecting even that much of a commitment from you. You could be gone tomorrow.”

  His hand enfolded one of mine. “It’s not that, Piper. I’m just more used to keeping secrets than not keeping them.”

  “We‘ve got that in common, then.”

  Sighing, he leaned back and looked at the front door. “Okay.”

  I scrambled through the window, and he caught me in his arms before my feet touched the ground. “Whoa!” He cradled me close to his chest.

  “I wanted to see you, but I can’t if I’m inside and you’re outside,” I said. “It’s too dark.”

  “I know, but you’re not wearing any shoes.”

  “Neither are you.”

  “I know, but it’s different because my feet aren’t cute.”

  I stared at him—tipping my chin down so he felt the full weight of it. ‘Cause that’s what a statement like that deserved.

  “I’ll have to change form to do it. I can’t do a partial change to fly,” he said, setting me down. “So, I’ll look as I did last night.”

  “I don’t mind.” Watching him transform was like seeing magic. His wings surged out, catching moonlight. “That’s amazing.” I ran my fingers along his wings—the bones, the webbing.

  Gris twitched as if it tickled slightly.

  “How does it work?”

  One swoop, and he was airborne. Six feet above the ground.

  “Wow,” I said.

  He dropped down. “I might…”

  “What?”

  “I might be able to pick you up.”

  “Really?”

  “Put your arms around my neck.”

  I did, hugging up to his body. This might be my only chance to experience this. He smelled like warm stone and Gris. He still smelled like himself. He put his arms around my waist, but the first swoop of his wings made me slip.

  “Maybe if I held you and you put your legs around my waist,” he said.

  It was a bit awkward and…friendly, but it worked. And we were flying. We were flying. I wanted to scream, but not out of fear. It was as amazing and exhilarating as riding his bike—times fifty.

  The airflow wrapped around us, caressing my sides. It was like dancing in the air.

  Laughing, I tucked myself into his body as I stared at the moon above us. This was incredible. “Gris,” I said.

  There was an abrupt jerk and we tipped sideways before he righted us. “Say that again,” he said.

  “What?”

  “My name.”

  I grinned. Silly boy. “Gris, this is unreal.”

  I tangled my fingers up in his hair—his hair that felt the same in either form. Even with all the changes, he was still Gris.

  “Does it feel like swinging in the barn?” he asked.

  I shook my head against his shoulder. “Take us that way, down that road.”

  “Why?”

  “I’ll show you. Right over there. That two-storey house with the clapboard shutters.” I had him put us down beside a tree in their yard.

  “We should get back,” Gris said, looking around.

  “Why?”

  “Why? Because I’m not sure it’s safe. Because Hidden Creek is trying to kill both of us. A good lot of reasons actually. Also, it’s a school night.”

  I sniffed, even if he was right. It was a school night. “This is importan
t.”

  “Is it? Where are we?”

  I pointed up at the house. “Hank‘s house.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Gris

  She had to be kidding.

  “Oh, fantastic,” I said. “Nothing says safe and cautious like spying on the family of a murder victim.”

  “Oh, hush, Gris. You know it’s a good idea.”

  A good idea?

  A good idea? “I should really take you home,” I said.

  “In a minute. I just wanna see what he’s up to.”

  “Are your parents gonna check on you and be pissed?” It was my Hail Mary.

  “No, I locked my door after I had Mama lock me in,” she whispered.

  Damn.

  If she got caught sneaking out, she’d be on her own for this explanation. I should take her back and slide her cute little butt right back through her window. When had I become the voice of reason between us? It didn’t sit right, but one of us had to keep her out of trouble.

  Her toes wriggled in the grass, and she whispered, “Next time maybe I’ll wear shoes.”

  “There’s not going to be a next time, Piper.” I wasn’t dragging her to our suspects’ houses.

  “No. Of course not.” Her quick agreement and her ramrod posture made me replay what I’d said. “I shouldn’t have assumed. I mean, even if you are still in town.” She wrapped her arms around herself.

  Damn. I could be such an oblivious jerk.

  “I just meant flying to someplace like this.”

  The sound of wood breaking drew our eyes to a window on the second floor. Somebody was breaking stuff—a lot of stuff. Something flew by the window and hit the wall.

  Hell. I stepped in front of her.

  With a huff of annoyance, she stepped around me. “It’s just Hank,” Piper whispered. She pointed at the driveway. “The only car here is his truck. I’m pretty sure that’s Trina‘s room. His is on the other side and has the school flag hanging in it as a curtain. It’s the actual school’s flag. He stole it, Gris, and he has the gall to hang it as a curtain for everybody to see. Ain’t that wrong? I think so.”

  Her outrage momentarily distracted me. She made me want to kiss her at the most inappropriate moments. This rush of a new relationship couldn’t last, though. Part of it might even be because of the situation. Maybe it was just as well that both of us realized this was temporary.